EarthBound
EarthBound (MOTHER2ギーグの逆襲 Mazā Tsū Gīgu no Gyakushū, officially translated Mother 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back!), also known as EarthBound: The War Against Giygas!, is the second installment in the Mother series. It was developed by Ape, Inc. and HAL Laboratory, Inc. and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on June 1, 1995. It was initially released in Japan on August 27, 1994, under the title Mother 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back. It was designed and directed by Shigesato Itoi, with music by Hiroshi Kanazu, Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka. EarthBound tells the story of Ness, a 13-year-old boy who journeys around the world using his psychic powers to collect eight melodies in order to save the future from an alien of pure evil, intending to sentence all of reality to the horror of eternal darkness. Despite being successful in Japan, the American version was released to a poor commercial response. Years later, the game is now lauded by gamers for its humorous depictions of American culture and parody of the RPG video game genre, and has since become a cult classic. An indirect sequel to EarthBound, Mother 3 was released exclusively in Japan in 2006. Gameplay EarthBound features many traditional RPG elements; the player controls a party of characters who travel through the game's two dimensional world that is composed of villages, cities, and dungeons. Along the way, battles are fought against enemies, after which, the party receives experience points for victories. If enough experience points are acquired, a character's level will increase. This increases the character's attributes, like strength, defense, and health. EarthBound breaks traditional RPG features by not utilizing an overworld map. Instead, the world is entirely seamless, with no differentiation between towns and the outside world. Another non-traditional element is the perspective used for the world. The game uses oblique projection, while most 2-D RPGs use a "top down" view on a grid or an isometric perspective. EarthBound, unlike its predecessor Mother, does not utilize random battles. When physical contact occurs between a character and an enemy, the screen switches to battle mode. In combat, characters and enemies possess a certain amount of hit points. Successive blows to an enemy reduces the amount of hit points. Once an enemy's hit points reach zero, they are defeated. In battle, the player is allowed to choose specific actions for their characters. These actions can include attacking, healing, or the use of items. Characters can also use special PSI attacks that require "psychic points." Once each character is assigned a command, the characters and enemies perform their actions in a set order, determined by character speed. Whenever a character receives damage, the hit point box gradually "rolls" down, similar to an odometer. This allows players an opportunity to heal the character or win the battle before the counter hits zero, after which the character is knocked unconscious. If all characters are rendered unconscious, the game ends. Because battles are not random, tactical advantages can be gained. If the player physically contacts an enemy from behind, the player is given a first-strike priority. However, this also applies to enemies, who can also engage the party from behind. Uniquely, as Ness and his friends become stronger, battles with weaker enemies are eventually won automatically, forgoing the entire battle sequence altogether. Currency is indirectly received from Ness's father, who can also save the game's progress. Each time the party wins a battle, Ness's father deposits money in an account that can be withdrawn at ATMs. In towns, players can visit various department stores where weapons, armor, and items can be bought. Weapons and armor can be equipped to increase character strength and defense, respectively. In addition, items can be used for a number of purposes, such as healing. Towns also house several other useful facilities such as hospitals where players can be healed for a fee. Plot Characters EarthBound takes place on Earth in the year 199X in the country of Eageland. Throughout the game, four characters come to compose the party in the game; Ness, Paula Jones, Jeff Andonuts and Prince Poo. Ness remains the lead character, a silent protagonist, for the entirety of the story. He is a young boy from Onett and is characterized by his love for baseball. He also possesses psychic abilities strong enough to affect cosmic events. Paula is the second main character in the game. She is a young girl from Twoson where her mother runs a preschool out of their home. Like Ness, she also possesses powerful psychic abilities. Jeff, the third character to join the party, is a young boy who resides at a boarding school in the northern country of Winters. The son of the famed professor Dr. Andonuts, Jeff is a child prodigy who can fix almost anything. The last character to be acquired is Poo. He is the oldest of the group, a residing prince from the distant land of Dalaam. He is presented as a powerful martial arts master. Story The story begins when Ness is awakened by a meteor that has plummeted to the earth near his home, whereupon he proceeds to investigate the crash site. After arriving, Ness encounters an insect, named Buzz Buzz who informs Ness that he is from the future where a hostile alien, Giygas, dominates the planet. Buzz Buzz instructs Ness to embark on a journey to defeat Giygas in the past, because he is too powerful in the future. Ness then proceeds to seek out eight "sanctuaries," to unite his own powers with the Earth's and gain the strength required to confront Giygas. After an encounter with some hostile gang members, Ness reaches the first sanctuary on a mountain above his hometown. He then proceeds to the next town, Twoson, where he rescues a girl named Paula from the Happy Happyist Cult and discovers that his neighbor, Pokey, has become evil. Together, Ness and Paula discover the second sanctuary. With the help of the Runaway Five, a band that Ness and Paula free from debt, the two arrive in Threed, where they are captured. While in captivity, Paula sends a telepathic message to a boy named Jeff, who resides at a boarding school. Jeff responds to the message and acquires his father's Sky Runner, a flying vehicle, in order to reach Threed. After crashing the Sky Runner, Jeff rescues Ness and Paula and joins their group. The three of them travel to Saturn Valley, a land populated by a strange race of creatures called Mr. Saturns. There, the party learns that a monster has been kidnapping the populace. Ness and the group proceed to defeat the monster and reach the third sanctuary above Saturn Valley. The party then travels through the desert to reach the next city. Upon reaching Fourside, the group again helps the Runaway Five out of debt and visit a department store only to have Paula kidnapped. Ness and Jeff proceed to find her, and along the way, destroy an evil relic called the Evil Mani Mani statue. The two boys continue their search only to discover that Pokey and the Mayor have kidnapped Paula. However, because Ness and Jeff defeated the Evil Mani Mani statue, the mayor returns to normal. Pokey escapes in the Mayor's helicopter and Paula rejoins the group. After returning to Threed, Jeff repairs the Sky Runner, and they set flight for Winters to discover the fourth sanctuary. The group then cross the ocean and arrive in Summers where Ness falls unconscious and dreams of a far-off land known as Dalaam. There, a young prince named Poo has completed his training and is instructed to join the party on their journey. The group then returns to Fourside and are able to discover the fifth sanctuary. The four then procure a boat and travel to Scaraba where they find a pyramid in the desert. Inside, they discover the secret to defeating Giygas. Ness and the group travel to Dalaam and find the sixth sanctuary there, after which they acquire a submarine and travel into the Deep Darkness, a path leading them under the earth. There, they find Tenda Village, a small community populated by extremely shy people. After acquiring the book of overcoming shyness, Ness is able to speak to the shy villagers who allow them passage to the Lost Underworld. There, they discover the last two sanctuaries. Upon activating the final sanctuary, Ness is teleported to a world composed of his dreams, Magicant. There, he encounters his nightmare, which resembles the Evil Mani Mani statue. After defeating it, Magicant is destroyed, and Ness becomes much stronger because he has conquered his nightmares. After awakening, Ness and the group return to Saturn Valley where Jeff's father, Dr. Andonuts, has finished the Phase Distorter, a time traveling device. After having their souls transplanted into robot bodies, Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo use the Phase Distorter to travel to the past where they encounter Pokey and Giygas, who, in order to contain his massive power, has been locked inside the Devil's Machine. Pokey informs the group that Giygas has become so powerful that his mind is completely destroyed. The group defeat Pokey, after which they open the Devil's Machine and release Giygas, who appears as an enormous red face screaming in agony. Giygas's power is to overwhelming for the heroes, and it appears as though they are doomed. Paula begins to pray, and with the combined prayers of both Earth's inhabitants and the player themselves, Giygas vanishes from existence. With all the damage he had done to Eagleland and the rest of the Earth are erased from history, Ness and his friends journey back to the present and return home. After the ending credits, Picky Minch comes to Ness's house in the middle of the night and gives him a letter from Pokey that says "Come and get me loser. Spankety, spankety, spankety!", and the game ends with him and Ness pondering on what has become of him. Development Development on EarthBound took place as a joint effort between Ape, Inc. and HAL Laboratory, Inc. and was designed by Shigesato Itoi. The total development time for the project was five years, much longer than was initially expected. Of this, Itoi has stated that many times he felt the project was "doomed". Because two companies were working on EarthBound, responsibilities were spread out between the two studios. Ape had more people working on the title and oversaw the data aspects of the game while HAL worked on the programming. Because the two studios were based at separate locations, employees would regularly have to travel between the studios to work. Initial gameplay features that Itoi had in mind involved an unconventional level structure and hit points system. Itoi decided to exclude an overworld, because he wanted no distinction to remain between towns and the outside world. This resulted in each town being carefully designed to be unique. The first design concepts for the hit point boxes were to make them like pachinko balls and have them fall off the screen whenever a character was damaged. However, this was later changed to the "rolling counter" hit point boxes because the pachinko balls did not work so well when characters had large amounts of hit points. EarthBound is also host to a unique kind of copy protection. When played, the game continually checks the legitimacy of its cartridge. If it is determined to be an unauthorized duplicate, it begins spawning enemies at an unusually higher rate than normal. If the player is able to overcome this challenge and reaches the game's final encounter, Giygas, the game would freeze in the middle of the battle, at which point all saved games are permanently deleted. Some of the difficulties posed by the development of EarthBound were the data restrictions imposed by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System cartridge size. It was initially designed to fit on an 8 megabit cartridge. However, it was later pushed to 12 megabits and then finally pushed onto a 24 megabit cartridge. This can partially be attributed to the large amount of music composed for the title. Other aspects of the project that remained difficult were programming concepts. The oblique projection techniques proved difficult to program and were time consuming as well. The bicycle and delivery man systems posed problems as well due to their own complex programming schemes. Some aspects of the character designs remain very personal for Shigesato Itoi. In an interview on his website, Itoi describes how his inspiration for the final battle with Giygas resulted from a traumatic childhood event. When Itoi was a young boy, he accidentally viewed the wrong movie at a theater, a Shintōhō film entitled The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty. According to Itoi the film featured a graphic rape scene near a river that traumatized Itoi so much that his parents began to worry about his wellbeing. Years later, Itoi integrated the experience into Giygas's dialogue for the final battle. Nintendo eventually announced a release date of August 27, 1994 for Japan, and invested a large amount of money into promoting the new game. Other efforts included bundling a full length strategy guide with the game, complete in a bigger box, and affixing a price much lower than other titles at the time. Scratch and sniff stickers also came bundled with the game. EarthBound was released in Japan on August 27, 1994, and was well received. The North American version was released almost a year later on June 1, 1995, and was met with lukewarm responses. A sequel was announced three years later for the Nintendo 64DD, entitled EarthBound 64 or Mother 3. However, the game became plagued by problems as release date pushbacks occurred, as well as failures to appear at popular gaming conventions, like E3. Nintendo eventually announced its cancellation on August 21, 2000. Years later, Mother 3 resurfaced as a Game Boy Advance title and was released only in Japan. On May 5, 2005, Shigesato Itoi announced that he had no plans to develop the Mother series any further. After the development of the Wii system, it was expected that EarthBound will be released for the Virtual Console, however due to supposed copyright issues involving music sampling, and Nintendo of Japan's refusal to let the game be modified, it has been stated EarthBound can never be re-released outside of Japan. Music EarthBound's soundtrack, Mother 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back, was released on compact disc and cassette tape by Sony Records on November 2, 1994. It consists of twenty-four tracks, three of which are remixes. Some songs from EarthBound appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl in their original or remixed form. Development of the music for EarthBound remained much easier than its predecessor. In an interview with Weekly Famitsu, Keiichi Suzuki commented on how the Super Nintendo Entertainment System gave the composers much more freedom to compose what they wanted. Suzuki also cited John Lennon as an influential figure to all the composers while the soundtrack was being developed. EarthBound is controversially known for its heavy use of sampling popular music, a factor which has prevented it from being re-released. Reception EarthBound became a great success in Japan, eventually rising to #1 on Weekly Famitsu's top 30 chart along with hearty recommendations by the magazine reviewers. Commercial reactions in America, on the other hand, were much lower than Nintendo had anticipated. American audiences were largely indifferent to Japanese RPGs, and would remain this way until titles like Final Fantasy VII took the genre into the mainstream. Years later, many American critics have praised the game for being ahead of its time, as well as for its storyline, graphics, and particularly, its humor. In the June 2008 issue of Nintendo Power, EarthBound was revealed to be the #1 "Readers' Most Wanted" Virtual Console title, with Mother close behind at #2. Reviews Reviews of EarthBound have generally been positive. In Allgame's review, EarthBound was declared "one of the most original role-playing games of the 1990s." The site then went on to praise it's storyline, humor, and characters. A point of contention between critics were the simplistic graphics. In All RPG's review of the game, the graphics were described as "horrid," while Nintendojo and 1UP enjoyed them, with 1UP going so far as to say "regardless of what anyone tells you, the graphics are awesome." 1UP also criticized the title's similarities to Dragon Quest, but in the end declared EarthBound a game "worth experiencing." Nintendojo and Gamasutra also criticized the similarities to Dragon Quest, with Gamasutra declaring EarthBound an "unabashed Dragon Quest clone..." Despite the criticism, Gamasutra regarded the title as "as one of the greatest RPGs on the SNES." The game's audio was also praised, with All RPG declaring it "some of the best music on the Super Nintendo." Of all EarthBound's elements, however, the most lauded was its humor, being universally praised by all critics for its comedic, albeit confusing, depictions of American culture and parody of the RPG genre. Legacy EarthBound is regarded by critics as one of the greatest RPGs on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as one of the best of the 1990s. The game has also become a cult classic and possesses substantial fanbases in both Japan and North America. As a result, the game regularly appears on readers' choice polls in both countries. In a 2005 readers' choice poll of the top 99 best games of all time conducted by IGN, EarthBound was voted 46th on the list. A year later, IGN conducted a similar readers' choice poll where EarthBound moved up to be 33rd on the list. The game has also appeared on lists conducted by the Japanese. In a 2006 readers' poll conducted by Famitsu magazine, the game was voted the 37th best game of all time on a list of 100 titles. In an introspective of the 20 essential Japanese RPGs, Gamasutra featured EarthBound on the list. ''Super Smash Bros.'' series EarthBound is featured extensively in the Super Smash Bros. series, including Ness appearing as a playable character in each game in the series. ''Super Smash Bros. Ness appears as a secret character, although he and Captain Falcon are the only characters that appear without having a stage from their respective games. Super Smash Bros. Melee Ness appears as an immediately available character in the roster. Onett and Fourside appear as stages, and nine trophies from ''EarthBound appear (Mr. Saturn, Starman, UFO, all four main characters, and two other trophies of Ness's moves in Super Smash Bros. Melee). ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl Ness again appears as an unlockable character, and Jeff appears as an assist trophy. The Onett stage also reappears. The six ''EarthBound-based trophies that are appear are Ness, his Final Smash of PK Starstorm, Franklin Badge, Mr. Saturn, Jeff, and Porky (despite using his Mother 3 appearance). The eight EarthBound-based stickers used are Ness and his party, Mr. Saturn, Starman, Master Belch, and Porky (using his EarthBound appearance). Fan Soundtracks EarthBound's soundtrack has also been completely remixed by fans and released as a free downloadable tribute album entitled Bound Together. The album encompasses 48 tracks and includes performances from well known video game cover bands, such as the OneUps, as well as various artists from remixing communities like OverClocked ReMix. Category:EarthBound Category:Games developed by HAL Laboratory Category:Mother games